29.03.06
C’est Ça

An interesting new project for La Villette, our long-standing Parisian client. ‘Ça’ is a theatre production that replaces the stage with 8 beds and 8 couples, in varying states of undress. Very French.

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22.03.06
Communicate in Zurich submitted by Sarah Brownrigg

Hello. I don’t actually work at johnson banks. I kinda did for a few months some years back. Or at least I turned up every day with cake and biscuits and they didn’t seem to mind.

Recently I received a surprise invitation to the opening of Communicate at the Design Museum in Zurich (that’s the Museum für Gestaltung if you’re Swiss). The exhibition originated at the Barbican about a year after Rewind (which is actually what I was working on those months at JB. See some other clever part of the site for more on that), and I had loaned them some items, hence the invitation.

I did a quick reccy to see who else was going but it seemed only myself and Mr. Poynor would be representing the UK. As Mark Farrow said, ‘it’s a long way, and I’ve seen it.’

Mr. Johnson wasn’t going either but wanted me to let him know ‘if any of our stuff is in the Zurich remix of Communicate’. I toyed briefly with the idea of claiming it hadn’t made the cut – egged on by a former JBer (you know who you are) – but I’m a rubbish liar so here is proof that not only is the work still there, but several of Michael’s pieces open the show. Not that you can tell from the picture.

Incidentally, the exhibition is segmented and laid out in the shape of the Union Jack. Neat little piece of Swiss exhibition design for you there.

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13.03.06
Even the manhole covers are beautiful

Western designers are forever returning from Japan with bags stuffed with robots and origami, full of missionary zeal about ‘a society where design is truly appreciated’. But just to really illustrate how fundamental design is in Japan, here’s a Tokyo manhole cover we saw at the weekend.